Thursday, 20 November 2014

Ace Tone FR-3

The Ace Tone FR-3 was released in 1967.
The FR3 was also sold in the USA as the Hammond Rhythm 2.

To make matters more confusing the newly founded Roland Corporation released an improved version of the FR3 in 1972. They called it the Roland Rhythm 33 ( TR-33)

Ace Tone itself was was founded by Ikutaro Kakehashi in 1960. Their first products were amplifiers.
They became the Roland Corporation.

The Rhythm Ace series of drum machines were sold under multiple names: Hammond & Multivox in the USA, Bentley in the UK
For example the Roland Rhythm 77 (1972) was sold in the UK as the Bentley & in the USA as the Hammond Auto-Vari 64 (1964). The equivalent Acetone was the Ace Tone FR-7L.